‘Day Skipper Plus Plus’ weekend – report by Kath Liddiard

Rhian Phillipsand I went on a Day Skipper Plus Plus weekend with a company called Dream or Two on the 17-19th August, sailing from Royal Clarence Marina, Gosport. We had come across this company at the boat show in London in January and were very taken by their relaxed attitude and friendly stand team. Apart from the normal courses for qualifications they run refresher courses, improving your skills and bespoke training. The weekend we had signed for was to put our day skipper training to use and practise prior to our sailing week booked for October in Croatia. We were booked onto a boat called Koru which was a Beneteau (2002) First 36.7 cruiser/racer. She was as described classy, spacious and gorgeous to sail. She has a furling genoa and a flaking mainsail. The boat was certainly one of the best appointed and pristine I have seen and a credit to the company. The catering was exceptional - certainly never felt hungry!Our skipper was called Martin and we met him on the Friday evening along with the other crew members of our and the other boat. A meal had been booked for us in the local pub and we all got to know each other ad get an understanding of what we wanted from the weekend. Saturday morning dawned fine and sunny and over breakfast the format of the weekend was discussed. All crew members wanted berthing experience so a couple of hours in the marina was on the agenda for us all. Stern-to, reversing the length of the marina, tight circles, parallel parking, pontoon port and starboard side, we all had a go. Conditions were favourable and it was probably one of the only fine weekends of the summer. Late morning saw us set out to sail out into the Solent for arrival at Hamble Point to spend the evening. We did various points of sail, several man overboards and general sail setting. No one was without a task and Martin had us tying various knots and answering general sailing questions en-route. Conditions were F3-4 and sea conditions were calm. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

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